Russian poet rues lack of awareness about contemporary authors

Eminent Russian poet and essayist Maxim Amelin has lamented lack of awareness about present-day Indian writers among Russian readers, which he blamed on the absence of "direct communication" between the two countries.
Only a handful of contemporary writers, for example Arundhati Roy, enjoys some familiarity back in Russia and for that matter in Europe, but that too because their writings got to be translated in native languages, Amelin observes.
"It's a far cry from Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay whose works are hugely popular in Russia and several other European countries," Amelin told PTI on the fringes of the 41st Kolkata International Book Fair where he was a guest.

He said, "Only those contemporary Indian writers, who are published in Europe or US, have some following whereas there is no knowledge of the vast number of others due to the absence of direct communication between the two countries."
Precisely for the same reason there had been no knowledge in India about his own books of poetry "Cold Odes" (1996) and 'Dubia', the 47-year old author rued.
"There had been fraternal exchanges between the two countries before the collapse of the Soviet Union, but ever since there has been a gap," he pointed out.

Another accompanying member of the Russian delegation to the hugely popular book fair said that the "common addiction" to social media by youths of the two countries had not helped it since most Russians communicate through their own languages in the virtual world.

Not only Tagore, most Bengali writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are very popular with the Russians, he said.
Alena Novokshona, Project Manager of the Moscow International Book Fair, said that by attending the Kolkata Book fair, the third largest in the world in terms of footfall, the delegation was looking to gather new experiences which could help refurbish literary awareness of each other's authors.